


Someday

by Tamari



Category: Circle of Magic - Tamora Pierce, Emelan - Tamora Pierce, PIERCE Tamora - Works, Song of the Lioness - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Crossover Pairings, F/M, Tragedy, Tragic Romance, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-01
Updated: 2012-08-01
Packaged: 2017-11-19 10:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/572513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamari/pseuds/Tamari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the country breaks apart, so does she. And he is there to watch it all, again. Crossover, Briar/Kalasin I.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someday

**Author's Note:**

> Tortall/Emelan crossover, set in Sarain, pre-SOTL. Written for the Goldenlake Olympics, team Emelan, with prompt "beyond the ash rains".

"What made you come here?" she asks. She is careful to keep a light tone and avoid intense eye contact. She does not want to scare him away, not now when there's so little time left.

"Anything is better than there," he says from far away, the sounds of temple bells etched in the lines of his face.

"I wouldn't be so sure," she says. "Viewing things from higher up does not make them better."

"No," he agrees, "it doesn't."

"Someday, things will be different," she says, "and this-" she runs her hand across her own tan arm, then her face- "this will not hold us back."

He meets her eyes with his own gray-green ones. "Someday, milady, but it won't be soon. You know that, don't you?"

She doesn't say _yes_ , but Kalasin is not a fool. "My people will fight back."

"Oh, yes, they will, but they'll lose."

And then her head's between her knees and she's keening, rocking back and forth, because she knows this too. He kneels beside her and rubs her back, whispering that everything is fine, but everything is not fine.

"It rains water here," she tells him in a hoarse voice. "But north, it is already raining blood and ash."

He almost tells her _I will be gone before the clouds of pain drift here_ , but he doesn't because it does not need to be said aloud. She knows.

"Someday, I will come back to you, when this is over. You will be so happy, and you will have little Thayet with you," he says, forcing a small smile.

She rubs her protruding belly and blinks rapidly. "Yes, yes, I know."

Decades later, Briar comes back, weary, graying, even more war-torn.

Ash clouds swirl in the sky.

Kalasin is dead.


End file.
